World Emoji Day

World Emoji Day

Did you know that there's a World Emoji Day? Well, there is ... and it's on July 17! surprise 

Do the preparation task first. Then read the article and do the exercises.

Preparation

Emoji is the fastest growing language in history. Five billion emojis are sent every day, just on Facebook Messenger. They're appearing in some surprising places too. One court judge in England used a smiley face emoji smiley in a document to make it easy to explain the court's decision to children. It's not surprising that there's a day to celebrate emojis, but what do you know about its organisers, the website Emojipedia?

Know your emoji

The company Unicode actually creates the computer code that give us emojis, but Emojipedia is where you can learn exactly what each emoji means and how to use it. Most of us probably know and use the most popular emojis, like the classic smiley face, heart or the smiling face with tears of laughter. But if you want to grow your emoji vocabulary, you can use Emojipedia to find out new ways to speak emoji.

So, for example, go to Emojipedia and type in sick and it will give you several options. If you mean ill, as in the American English phrase I'm sick, you can use the face with a thermometer or a mask. Or maybe you mean I feel sick, like in British English to mean to vomit. Since 2017, when Unicode added the vomiting emoji, you can choose from two green faces. Or maybe you're just feeling a bit dizzy, in which case you can choose the confused, dizzy-looking face. If you wanted to talk about hospital or a medical condition, Emojipedia has also suggested a syringe or a pill. So you can see with just one real word, sick, you have a lot of emojis to choose from to explain exactly what you mean!

New, inclusive emojis

Unicode adds new emojis all the time. They might take time to be available on all platforms and phones, but you will see them immediately on Emojipedia. An important improvement to the emoji list, which had 2,823 emojis after its 2018 update, is to make the emojis more diverse. Since 2015, when Apple added five different emoji skin colours, people have been able to choose how to represent themselves best. The 2018 update added red hair, Afro hair and a bald face, all in a range of skin colours, but that update didn't go far enough either. Many people asked for new emojis to represent deaf and blind people, and people with physical or invisible disabilities.

Save the date!

There's some emoji history behind how Emojipedia chose 17 July to celebrate World Emoji Day. Check out the calendar emoji on Emojipedia and look carefully. Can you see the date?

The code for each emoji is the same, but different platforms, like Twitter or Facebook, for example, design their emojis in different ways. When Emojipedia was deciding which day to hold World Emoji Day, only Apple was using a calendar emoji with a date on, 17 July. So they decided to celebrate emojis on 17 July too. Apple chose that date because it was when Apple introduced its iCal calendar feature for Mac in 2002. Now, other platforms have added dates to their calendar emojis. Facebook Messenger uses its launch date of 9 August. Twitter's calendar emoji shows 21 March because that's the date Twitter created its company. It used to show Twitter's launch date, which was 15 July, but that was too close to World Emoji Day's date, so they changed it.

Happy World Emoji Day! 

So, if you want to send someone a message using emoji to celebrate World Emoji day, Emojipedia has plenty to choose from, including six colours of raising hand emojis, five party emojis and two kinds of fireworks. You can even choose a world globe that shows the part of the world you live in. Whichever emojis you choose to celebrate, we wish you Happy World Emoji Day! wink

Discussion

Download

Language level

Average: 4.1 (7 votes)

Submitted by lotus454 on Thu, 21/12/2023 - 12:18

Permalink

i like cat emoji's because there the most searched video's in youtube

bye👍👌😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁╰(*°▽°*)╯^_^:-):-D;):) ̄へ ̄

Submitted by meknini on Thu, 14/07/2022 - 10:01

Permalink

Mine has always been the lol - the one with laughing out loud heartily. I guess it feels quite good to make others cheerful by sharing my happiness through my chosen emoji.

Submitted by sithutun on Wed, 08/12/2021 - 13:51

Permalink

Three red hearts around a smily face is my favorite emoji ever. It is a new emoji in Apple platform. I always use it when chatting with my friends in messenger as it can make one being loved.

Submitted by Thinthinmyoe on Wed, 07/07/2021 - 10:39

Permalink
I really love the heart with blue colour.I think it represents peace of love.

Submitted by PARIMALA MADIAZHAKAN on Mon, 08/03/2021 - 05:01

Permalink
My all time favorite emoji is smiley face. IDK why I like that so much but the smiley emoji always be my favorite. Maybe I used that for always stay happy and positive.
Profile picture for user danisep

Submitted by danisep on Sun, 03/01/2021 - 23:55

Permalink
I didn't use to use many emojis, but in some chats, I notice that make the conversation more real and amusing so I started to use them too, using them I think that you can make feel the other person relaxed and enter into confidence.

Submitted by cittàutopica on Mon, 21/12/2020 - 17:13

Permalink
My favourite emoji is a woman who flies her arms in the air and I use it for congratulating my friends.

Submitted by YL on Thu, 16/07/2020 - 09:33

Permalink
This is a modern subject that interests a lot of people nowadays.The usage of emojis, instead of words is becoming a widely spreading practice. However, I think using them too much, risks the users's normal language skills. Especially social interactions and cultural exchanges.
Profile picture for user OlaIELTS

Submitted by OlaIELTS on Sun, 07/06/2020 - 01:14

Permalink
My favourite emoji is a normal face, this mean that things are okay.
Profile picture for user silvina

Submitted by silvina on Mon, 09/09/2019 - 20:28

Permalink
When I use one it is becouse the other person who is writing or talking with me is using them. It is easy to form a code with this, becouse when an algorithm is formed through a Word with an only a gestual picture, as emoji is, it is other simple task...thousands of words are in relation with cartoons, so people is facilitating the task all the time. I do not consider a language this kind of modern code, I would like to know the ancient language code, as there is on Pakistan, Iran,Egypte,Jordan,Syria,etc...a real and authentic language and message.And if I remember about one on special, as the smile face, it has emerged in 1960 .People reactioned with this picture, so the analysis of the reaction,motivation etc it was studied since years and years ago. Today it is only a reproduction in a great scale, if I analyse emojies I like avocado couple...hearts and similar to real pictures, only to enrich my text,adding color and shape...if we use correctly our words, every language has thousand of we don´t need an emoji...an expression atributted to teens!! Parisaach!!!your language is so rich....scriptures on Iran are better than emojies are....beautiful,amazing,incredible....